It鈥檚 a bird! It鈥檚 a plane! It鈥檚... a superweed?
If you鈥檝e paid any attention to the debate concerning the adoption of genetically-engineered crops, you鈥檝e heard of superweeds. They鈥檙e those nasty, hearty weeds that cross-breed with GMO corn to resist herbicide applications. Or, um...they鈥檙e new, special weeds, able to outcompete other pesky plants with undetermined magic properties, right? No, they鈥檙e the result of an over-reliance on a particular weed management strategy.
But which is it? That鈥檚 been the problem.
Until now, for the term. 鈥淪uperweed鈥� has crossed over from the relatively wonky world of agriculture and into the mainstream, whipped up in a frenzy of media coverage about genetically-modified crops. superweeds make the link between farmers鈥� embrace of the herbicide glyphosate, and the corn and soy plants resistant to it, and the spread of weeds.
For every , that the weeds are simply a result of a lack of diversity in weed controls, there are many that don鈥檛. When journalists get science wrong, exasperated scientists get mad. That鈥檚 why the Weed Science Society of America, along with six other scientific organizations, released its superweed definition:
Superweed. /藞su藧p蓹藢wi藧d/ (noun): Slang used to describe a weed that has evolved characteristics that make it more difficult to manage due to repeated use of the same management tactic. Over-dependence on a single tactic as opposed to using diverse approaches can lead to such adaptations.
about the new definition, you can almost hear the weed scientists issuing a collective sigh, with talk of 鈥渟nowballing misinformation.鈥�
There are plenty of examples where people get the word wrong. tells its users superweeds are caused by the 鈥渢ransfer of genes from genetically-engineered crops into wild plants,鈥� which weed scientists say is a fairly rare occurrence, and certainly is not the cause of the herbicide-resistance problem many farmers and ranchers face today.
In a about the language of superweeds, , a plant science professor at the University Wyoming who specializes in weed management, argues that in order to have a good discussion about the problem of herbicide-resistant weeds, we need to use words everyone can agree on, otherwise you鈥檙e bound to have a confusing conversation.
鈥淚t would be nice if we could stop using the term superweed, and instead just say what we mean,鈥� Kniss writes.
Herbicide-resistance has been a problem for farmers for decades, even prior to the approval of genetically-engineered crops in the mid-1990s. Nearly every state in the country has a set of unique herbicide-resistant weeds, some that have evolved to withstand glyphosate, others resistant to herbicides like atrazine, chlorsulfuron and dicamba. And the term "superweed" isn鈥檛 even that new. Kniss tracked it back to that told readers of 鈥渟uperweeds鈥� traveling from one dung heap to another.
As for the problem of herbicide-resistant weeds today, which in some cases we can now call superweeds with the blessing of weed scientists, the solutions vary. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Agriculture for farmers seeking to diversify weed management practices. the only way to slow the spread of these weeds is to completely overhaul our country鈥檚 agricultural economy, with more emphasis on crop rotation and less reliance on genetically-engineered commodity crops.
